Specifying ssh key in ansible playbook file

Question

Ansible playbook can specify the key used for ssh connection using --key-file on the command line   ansible-playbook -i hosts playbook yml --key-file     ssh mykey pem    Is it possible to specify the location of this key in playbook file instead of using --key-file on command line   Because I want to write the location of this key into a var yaml file  which will be read by ansible playbook with vars files    The followings are parts of my configuration   vars yml file  key1     ssh mykey1 pem key2     ssh mykey2 pem   playbook yml file  ---  - hosts  myHost   remote user  ubuntu   key file     key1       This is not a valid syntax in ansible  Does there exist this kind of directive which allows me to specify the ssh key used for this connection    vars files      - vars yml   tasks      - name  Echo a hello message       command  echo hello   I ve tried adding ansible ssh private key file under vars  But it doesn t work on my machine   vars files    - vars yml vars    ansible ssh private key file      key1     tasks    - name  Echo a hello message     command  echo hello   If I run ansible-playbook with the playbook yml above  I got the following error   TASK  Gathering Facts                                                                                                                                 Using module file  usr local lib python2 7 site-packages ansible modules system setup py  lt 192 168 5 100 gt  ESTABLISH SSH CONNECTION FOR USER  ubuntu  lt 192 168 5 100 gt  SSH  EXEC ssh -C -o ControlMaster auto -o ControlPersist 60s -o StrictHostKeyChecking no -o KbdInteractiveAuthentication no -o PreferredAuthentications gssapi-with-mic gssapi-keyex hostbased publickey -o PasswordAuthentication no -o User ubuntu -o ConnectTimeout 10 -o ControlPath  Users myName  ansible cp 2d18691789 192 168 5 100   bin sh -c      echo    amp  amp  sleep 0        lt 192 168 5 100 gt   255       Permission denied  publickey   r n   fatal   192 168 5 100   UNREACHABLE    gt         changed   false       msg    Failed to connect to the host via ssh  Permission denied  publickey   r n        unreachable   true       to retry  use  --limit   Users myName playbook retry   I don t find the name of my key file in the ssh command  It s strange

User · Answer

The variable name you re looking for is ansible ssh private key file   You should set it at  vars  level    in the inventory file   myHost ansible ssh private key file    ssh mykey1 pem myOtherHost ansible ssh private key file    ssh mykey2 pem  in the host vars     hosts vars myHost yml ansible ssh private key file     ssh mykey1 pem    hosts vars myOtherHost yml ansible ssh private key file     ssh mykey2 pem  in a group vars file if you use the same key for a group of hosts in the vars section of your play   - hosts  myHost   remote user  ubuntu   vars files      - vars yml   vars      ansible ssh private key file      key1       tasks      - name  Echo a hello message       command  echo hello    Inventory documentation

User · Answer

You can use the ansible cfg file  it should look like this  There are other parameters which you might want to include     defaults  inventory    lt PATH TO INVENTORY FILE gt  remote user    lt YOUR USER gt  private key file     lt PATH TO KEY FILE gt    Hope this saves you some typing

User · Answer

If you run your playbook with ansible-playbook -vvv you ll see the actual command being run  so you can check whether the key is actually being included in the ssh command  and you might discover that the problem was the wrong username rather than the missing key    I agree with Brian s comment above  and zigam s edit  that the vars section is too late   I also tested including the key in the on-the-fly definition of the host like this    fails - name  Add all instance public IPs to host group   add host  hostname    item public ip    groups ec2hosts ansible ssh private key file    aws dev staging pem   loop      ec2 instances       but that fails too     So this is not an answer   Just some debugging help and things not to try

[ansible] Specifying ssh key in ansible playbook file

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